Fudgetastic!

Yesterday and today, I had a fudge adventure! Every Christmas, as our gift to Justin's side of the family, I bake. I decided this year that I wanted to bake something that would be special to Christmas and I'd only make it at Christmastime. 

After a HUGE fail at pumpkin spice cake balls, I decided fudge was the way to go. I've been making fudge with my mom since I was a little girl so I figured I could turn out some decent gift fudge. Since I view recipes as mere suggestions, I wanted to do a trial run so I decided to make a few batches for a ladies' retreat I'm going on this weekend. 

My flavors, you ask! Eggnog, peppermint mocha and chocolate peanut butter. 

I found this recipe when I Googled "Eggnog fudge recipes" and it worked great!! The eggnog fudge is amazing! 

I decided that since it turned out so good, I would just substitute some of the ingredients to make my other 2 flavors. For the peppermint mocha, I used 3/4 c peppermint mocha coffee creamer instead of the eggnog and a bag of milk chocolate chocolate chips instead of the white chocolate. It turned out yummy! The only thing I might do different next time is add some peppermint extract.

Our friend Becky makes the best peanut butter fudge on the planet! I make alot of things that Justin labels "The Best Ever!" but nothing has beaten Becky's peanut butter fudge. I was trying to come close but dang WalMart screwed me up!! All they had was a peanut butter/chocolate chip mix. So I got that and used it instead of the white chocolate in the recipe and instead of the 1/2c butter I used 1/2c peanut butter. It turned out really good, but it's definitely a chocolate/peanut butter fudge. I'm going to have to try again for the straight peanut butter version.

Now for the big people food ...

Hello, I'm Abby & I'm addicted to the Food Network. It's true. I love it, love it! I even have the Food Network Wii game, Chop or be Chopped. I love cooking/baking & the Food Network completely inspires me (to either cook or eat). My friend Sarah shares my sentiments ... sorta. It's safe to say she's not as crazy as I am. But because Justin refuses to watch cooking shows with me, Sarah is my foodie buddie. I ask her on a regular basis to tell me why we're not trying to get on the show, 24 Hour Restaurant. She very calmly brings me back to reality. Okay, so a restaurant may not be in my future, but that won't stop me from expiramenting & creating in my own kitchen.

The other night, mashed potatoes were on my menu. My muy carniverous husband pretty much insists on eating bacon on or in everything. He's very easy to please! I'm going back to my vegetarian diet so I made His & Hers potatoes. Justin's ended up with bacon (of course!), cheddar cheese, butter & Cacique Crema Mexicana. Yummmmm! I went Greek with mine ~ basically because it's what I had in the fridge. So mine consisted of tzatziki (a Greek yogurt dip), herbed feta & garlic infused olive oil (something I learned how to do from watching the Food Network). Mmmmmm! To go along with my taters, I decided to try a Greek salmon flatbread sandwich. Thank God for CostCo! They have these amazing salmon patties that are to die for! I threw one in the oven then put it on flatbread with tzatziki, kalamata olives & herbed feta. It was all so easy & so delicious!


So I try my hardest not to jump on band wagons ... of any kind! However, I've taken a huge leap onto the cupcake wagon! I love em! I watch shows about them. I drive a 1/2 hour away to buy them. They're just so adorable & creamy & eccentric! So I've decided I'm going to make cupcakes for Eve's 1st birthday (yes, she's only 5 months old & I'm already thinking about it). I've decided to play with different recipes between now & then. I want to make them flavorful but healthy. So I found this recipe for agave nectar cupcakes. SCORE! They turned out soooooo delicious! It was a generic vanilla flavor but I'm going to expirament with a different flavor and also with wheat flour. I ran across an agave nectar frosting recipe as well. It tasted a little bit like what you'd think bad morning breath tastes like. So my search continues ...


Here's the link to the recipes I used. This chick agrees that the frosting recipe is bad, so attempt at your own risk! My Achy Bakey Heart

Feeding Frenzy

We're all about food in our house right now! Eve started eating solids about 3 weeks ago & she loves it!! She's eating rice cereal, sweet potatoes & peas. Today we tried some apple, so we'll see how that goes. She'd eat her weight in the sweet potatoes & cereal but the peas I think she just tolerates. Mealtime always ends up being a fun mess!

I make my own baby food. I picked up a box of rice cereal the other day & couldn't pronounce half the ingredients. That pretty much solidified my decision to make my own. Plus, it's so much cheaper! I use my coffee grinder to grind sweet brown rice into a powder. It probably take a little longer than the boxed stuff to get the right consistency (but I'm not sure, I've never made the stuff!). It turns out tasting like yummy cream of wheat ... something I'd eat! I love knowing exactly what's going into my baby's tummy. The real cost saver really comes with the veggies. I can bake & puree 3 sweet potatoes & have enough to feed her for about 2 months. Plus, she's eating pure veggies. I still nurse her every 4 hours-ish, so she's getting the great nutrition of breast milk too.